There are countless numbers of items and bulk materials which are routinely handled, including agriculture products, municipal solid waste, yard waste, and industrial products. These materials are often loaded into and unloaded from containers having open tops.
Examples include the opens beds of vehicles such as dump trucks, pickup trucks, wagons, railway freight cars, etc. Because of the open nature of the beds, there are also numerous methods and devices for the covering (and uncovering) of these open beds. Covering vehicle beds is necessary to protect the material being hauled from being damaged by objects falling from above as well as to protect innocent passers-by from being injured by material which may inadvertently exit the vehicle bed during transport. Especially useful are flexible sheets of material, such as tarps, which are stretched over the open beds of vehicles. Tarps provide a cheap, effective cover for open vehicle beds and are fairly easy to deploy and stow in a timely manner.
One example for the use of tarps to cover vehicle beds is in the field of landscaping. One concern is the safe transport of tools, topsoil, piping and many other items which frequently need to be delivered to a work site. Another concern arises after the work is complete; many jobs often result in debris which needs to hauled away, such as clippings from trimmed plants (trees, shrubs, grass, etc.), earth, trash, and the like. Because of the dual need of the landscaper to both cover the open bed of his vehicle and easily load and unload material, it would be highly beneficial to combine the two functions, thus enabling him to load and unload diverse material while at the same time deploying or stowing the tarp which is so frequently used in the business.
While there are many devices on the market which do an adequate job of covering and uncovering the load, none attempt to combine the loading/unloading procedures with the deployment/stowing of the tarp. In each case, the material to be hauled is first loaded into the vehicle as a separate step of the hauling process, then the tarp is deployed in some way to cover the vehicle bed. Upon arrival at the work site, the tarp then has to be removed and stowed in some manner before the material can be unloaded. The separate steps of loading and unloading the material takes valuable time which could otherwise be used to accomplish the desired work. In addition, large loads require large tarps which are too bulky and heavy for manipulation by a single operator.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a device and method which combine the functions of deploying and stowing a tarp and the loading and unloading of material to and from a receptacle having an open top, all of which capable of being accomplished by a single operator.